Oscar de la Renta and The Outnet Team Up for Accessibly-Priced Line (Hoorah!)

Oscar de la Renta and The Outnet Team Up for Accessibly-Priced Line (Hoorah!)

Own an Oscar de la Renta without paying Oscar de la Renta prices, thanks to the fashion house’s new collaboration with The Outnet!

-Lucia Peters

Wish you could own an Oscar de la Renta dress without going totally broke buying it? Well, now’s your chance: According to Vogue UK, the high-end design house has teamed up with online discount designer fashion outlet The Outnet to create an exclusive collection intended to be more affordably-priced than the label’s mainline. Hallelujah!…

…Well, sort of. By “more affordably-priced,” we mean that items will retail for anywhere between $325 to $1,295. Of course, given that your average Oscar de la Renta dress retails for $2,000 at minimum (and often more, as is the case with this $8,990 gingham gown from the spring 2013 ready-to-wear collection). Still, though, $325 for an Oscar de la Renta ain’t too bad, all things considered.

Some details: The line will use the same patterns, fabrics, and factory as Oscar’s mainline, and will feature not only dresses (which, of course, are Oscar’s bread and butter), but also shorts, pencil skirts, high-waisted trousers, and more. The most expensive piece will be a floor-length silk trapeze gown in a gorgeous coral color.

Alex Bolen, Oscar’s CEO, said about the line, “Currently, the brand’s outlet model is driven by surplus merchandise, and this marks the first time product has been actively developed for this channel of trade. We have things atound here that are underutilized—40 years of patterns, fabrics, and artwork that a lot of people spent time on. We thought, perhaps we can put something together in a way that is new, that doesn’t require as much development time and in an exclusive way.”

Added The Outnet’s managing director, Stephanie Phair, “We know that our customer loves Oscar, but we also feel that this is an amazing opportunity to tap into The Outnet’s audience with a new audience that Oscar as a brand might not have reached yet. This is tapping into a potential customer that will become an Oscar de la Renta customer.”

The Outnet’s exclusive Oscar de la Renta collection is due to launch on February 24.